It's probably going a little overboard say that Tennessee (10-8, 2-4) 'righted the ship' with Saturday's win over Alabama, but the Vols do look like they may have things headed back in the right direction. Confirmation of that optimistic opinion could come tonight when Vanderbilt (8-10, 2-4) visits Thompson Boling Arena.

It's safe to say that SEC play didn't start the way the Vols had hoped, but a glance at the league standings quickly reveals that this weekend's timely win kept them in the squarely in the middle of the pack.

Outside of Florida and Ole Miss, who have raced out to matching 6-0 starts, no one else has managed to put any real distance between themselves and rest of the league. Tennessee is part of a seven team logjam at 2-4 that's just two games out of third place, currently shared by Missouri, Alabama and Kentucky at 4-2.

Those standings, and the fact that so many teams are still within striking distance of one the four byes in the SEC tournament a third of the way through the schedule, probably says more than a little about the quality of the newly expanded 14-team SEC this season.


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